SEAMUS Burns, no stranger to big race success in his long Lodge Park Stud career, struck South African gold for the first time at Scottsville last Sunday when his bargain purchase Ambiorix landed a two-year-old Group 1.
Burns enjoys testing his equine judgement on his annual January South African holiday which he normally arranges to coincide with the Cape Premier Yearling Sale, and last year he picked out a colt by the Jebel Hatta winner Vercingetorix out of an Indigo Magic mare.
The purchase won first time out at Kenilworth and started at just over 8/1 for the six-furlong Gold Medallion.
Ridden by teenage sensation Luke Ferraris, the colt raced prominently, led over a furlong out and kept on strongly to beat 10/1 shot Bard Of Avon by slightly more than a length.
“It’s a great honour to train Seamus’s first Group 1 winner in South Africa,” said trainer Vaughan Marshall. “This is a very decent horse who has always shown that he has the ability.”
Burns, now retired from breeding and living in Cheshire, spoke on Monday about the selection and purchase of Ambiorix: “I buy the odd one in Cape Town so that I have something to run when I’m out there.
“I don’t know much about South African pedigrees but he was a good individual, a fine specimen of a colt and I liked him. I also knew that his breeder Barbara Sanne (of Oldlands Stud) is very good.
“I then spoke to David Allen about the horse. David already had him on his list, we looked at him again and both of us liked him.”
Future
Allen signed the docket at only R250,000 (just over €15,000) so Ambiorix is now showing a profit and, says Burns, “He looks to have a future – and I’m delighted. It’s nice to have a good one, even if you can only see him on TV.”
The Allan Robertson Championship, the fillies’ equivalent of the Gold Medallion, was won comfortably and impressively by Under Your Spell who gave rider Calvin Habib his first Group 1 success.
The Sean Tarry-trained filly is by champion miler Capetown Noir out of the unraced Irish-bred mare Deceptive Charm, herself a daughter of a full-sister to the Ballysax Stakes winner Casey Tibbs. There were two other Group 1s on Scottsville’s day of speed, both also over six furlongs.
Craig Zackey, a long way from being a small jockey, amazingly managed to starve himself down to 52k (8st 2lb) to ride bottom-weight Battle Force in the Golden Horse Sprint Handicap.
He looked noticeably the worse for wear after winning the race on the Paul Matchett-trained Act Of War gelding.
He also had a difficult time down at the start. “I hadn’t done 52k for four years and I had to lose about 5k to get there. Then everything went wrong down at the gates,” the rider related.
Handful
“He lost a shoe and they couldn’t get it back on again. He was a real handful and in the end he ran with only one nail in that shoe.”
Corne Spies’ second favourite Singforafara (by Potala Palace) completed the Group 1 showcase on the day by leading throughout the South African Fillies’ Sprint to give rider Ryan Munger his first success at the top level.
Ferraris to Hong Kong
LUKE Ferraris has been given a six-month contract by the Hong Kong Jockey Club starting in September. He was brought up in Hong Kong and his father David trains there.
HAWWAAM, five-time Group 1 winner for Mike de Kock, is to stand at Mary Slack’s Wilgerbosdrift Stud next season. He raced for the late Hamdan Al Maktoum and Shadwell has pledged to support him.